Creative-Radio is an independent forum for people active in or interested in the use of radio in development, in particular promoting public health, improved education, protection of the environment, improved livelihoods, good governance and conflict mitigation. Since it started in 1996, Creative-Radio has been in the forefront of radio's resurgence as a tool for social change and peace-building, and it helps promote best practice in these areas.

Creative-Radio is an independent forum for people active in or interested in the use of radio in development, in particular promoting public health, improved education, protection of the environment, improved livelihoods, good governance and conflict mitigation. Since it started in 1996, Creative-Radio has been in the forefront of radio's resurgence as a tool for social change and peace-building, and it helps promote best practice in these areas.

Dear Activists, Supporters, Friends and to all receivers of The VOICE Info_ Newsletters.

We are appealing to you to support and contribute to our solidarity campaign for Felix Otto, a member of The VOICE Refugee Forum in Jena. He could be forcefully deported soon from Germany to Camerun. Felix Otto situation remains quite critical in the deportation prison in Suhl.

We are amazed with the volume of solidarity extended to him in the prison in Goldlauter/Suhl since the campaign started. He did informed us that he is inspired and motivated with the solidarity demonstrated for his freedom since his arrest on the 30th of March this year.

We remain with him in his struggle for unconditional freedom from deportation prison and from any detention here or any were else.

We do hope that your support will encourage us all to keep the protest on and to inform others

The VOICE Online on Felix Otto's Imprisonment: Fax Campaign for the Immediate Freedom of Felix Otto from Deportation Prison: Information in Deutsch und English Neu Faxkampagne against the deportation >>> http://thecaravan.org/node/2071

Why Felix Otto Is In Prison: A Thesis on Colonial Injustice and Crimes Against Humanity in Germany

Introduction

For many people living outside of Europe or the United States, countries like Germany are all too often seen as a sort of paradise, a place where human rights and dignity are respected and where people are entitled to the basic amenities of a right to life (access to employment, education, housing, basic social services, etc.). Moreover, the idea is both understood and propagated that, contrary to many countries of Africa, Asia or Latin America, all people are treated equally and discrimination, if it exists, is kept to a minimum.

In fact, laws even exist on a European level which make discrimination of people based on their race or heritage, among other aspects, a violation of both European and, as a result, national law. Even the very first article of Germany's national constitution states, "Human dignity is unassailable "

Yet as millions of people from all over the world have come to realize, the promise of rights and dignity have proven to be nothing more than a bitter illusion; yet another lie, another broken promise in a long chain of abuses and injustices which have characterized the relationship between Europe and the United States with the rest of the world.

For instance, Germany is considered to be a country which supposedly represents both the best and worst of Europe; worst for its role in the Holocaust and the targeted elimination of millions of human beings throughout the European Continent and best for having overcome that legacy, confronted its past and created a new role for itself as a primary defender of human rights throughout the world.

Yet as we will see in the article below, either these principles are simply not applied or, as in the case of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, certain groups of people were not the intended beneficiary of such efforts at ensuring that the dignity and humanity of all human beings be respected as unassailable.

In this particular case we will be focusing on the issue of Residenzpflicht, also known as the Obligatory Residence Law. On the books since 1982, Germany is currently the only European country to apply this law to asylum-seekers. Much more than a law to determine the residence of asylum-seekers, Residenzpflicht is used as a weapon of repression to control the movement of asylum-seekers and ensure that they remain intimidated into staying in their designated places of residence or be punished for not doing so.

Creative-Radio is an independent forum for people active in or interested in the use of radio in development, in particular promoting public health, improved education, protection of the environment, improved livelihoods, good governance and conflict mitigation. Since it started in 1996, Creative-Radio has been in the forefront of radio's resurgence as a tool for social change and peace-building, and it helps promote best practice in these areas.